Airport Rail Link to increase service with more trains

The Ministry of Transport has appointed the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) to proceed the purchase of more trains for the Airport Rail Link (ARL) service to accommodate more passengers.

The Minister of Transport Arkhom Termpittayapaisith has said after observing the operation of the ARL train service, connecting Suvarnabhumi Airport to central Bangkok run by SRT Electric Train Company (STRET), that the average number of passengers has reached 60,000 persons per day, exceeding the current operational capacity.

He said that additional trains will be required to enhance passenger service capacity, while the ARL now can only operate seven out of the total nine trains, as two are under maintenance until April 2016.

The new set of trains awaiting procurement consists of seven train sets with a total of 28 carriages. The new trains will help double the capacity, allowing service capacity to reach up to 120,000 passengers per day.

On this matter, the SRT governor Wuthichart Kalyanamitra has revealed that the SRT is now finalizing train specifications before proposing the details to the Public Debt Management Office by the end of this month.

He added that this procurement deal is expected to be finalized in December, and the new trains will be scheduled for delivery at early 2018, with a total budget of 4.8 billion baht, 4.4 billion of which is the price of the train and the remaining 400 million will be used on spare parts.

He has also stressed that there train specification lobbying, favoring any particular manufacturer, is non-existent. The proposed price of the new train sets is confirmed to be cheaper than the previous purchase.